04.03.10
Language skills and practical training are top of the list when the refugee children living in Ukraine gets a chance to voice their own needs. Right now they get the chance through the “Refugee Youth Councils” set up by the Danish Refugee Council.
Asylum seeking and refugee children who are living in Ukraine face very different conditions depending on which region of the country they have ended up seeking refugee in. The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is providing help throughout the country but wants to help even better. In order to do this the DRC has started "Refugee Youth Councils" – participatory groups for asylum seeking and refugee youth in Ukraine.
“We are already making sure they are not hungry, that they have warm clothes for the winter, school uniforms for those who can attend school, legal and psychological support. But there is a huge difference in the needs of the children therefore we have started the Refugee Youth Councils to get feedback directly from the children. By hearing their voices we get a chance of helping them even better in the future,” says Project Officer Elena Plekhanova, who conducts the councils.
DRC is not even half way through its planned activities , but already by now it is clear that the children are very focussed on ways to get a better chance of making a living in the country they have ended up in.
“There is a huge difference between the needs of these children. Those who have come with their parents are better off than the unaccompanied minors, whom the underdeveloped asylum system in Ukraine does not – so far – give many chances of obtaining a refugee status,” says Elena Plekhanova.
“Despite the differences most of the children voice needs that are alike; they are very focussed on learning more – better their language skills and learning a practical skill – in order to increase their chances of making a living in Ukraine.”
The meetings are not only giving the children a voice, at each meeting an asylum lawyer is participating to give the children general information on both their rights and obligations as children and asylum seekers or refugees in Ukraine.
“We want them to know what sort of help they can get from us and be aware what they can count on in Ukraine due to the rights of children,” says Elena Plekhanova.
The asylum seeking and refugee children in Ukraine have fled from many different countries, but most of them come from Afghanistan, Somalia and Russia.
The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has since February 2009 been working to support the government of Ukraine to fulfil its obligations towards vulnerable asylum seeking and refugee children – by developing legal and institutional systems, strengthening social assistance and support for orientation and adaptation of children into Ukrainian society, and developing models of temporary care for unaccompanied asylum seeking children. The project is financed by the European Commission.